


A Hero's Debt

by Lucy112235



Series: If The Other One Won [5]
Category: Escape the Night (Web Series)
Genre: A lotta angst, Alex is a hero, Angst, Gabbie and Alex and Tyler my children I'm sorry, Gen, Sacrifice, Self-Sacrifice, The Final Five, s2 ep 7, we stan a Gabex friendship, with this ep 9 this is one heck of a day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-29
Updated: 2019-08-29
Packaged: 2020-09-28 22:01:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20433140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lucy112235/pseuds/Lucy112235
Summary: "Alex, no!"He looks up from the ground. Gabbie’s down on her knees, in openmouthed terror, her eyes sparkling with tears of pain and pre-death contemplation.He can’t do it.Alex makes the ultimate sacrifice. Gabbie suffers the consequences.





	A Hero's Debt

**Author's Note:**

> YOU get angst! And YOU get angst!
> 
> EVERYONE GETS ANGST!

“I used to be pretty good at these when I was younger.” Alex is working on his fourth and final puzzle, which, ironically, is an actual puzzle. He’s close. So close.

Gabbie’s voice echoes throughout the room. "Hey, Alex. You wanna try to help me out?"

He looks up at her, and part of him sneers  _ don’t help her, you idiot! Just let her die! _

But a bigger part of him, a voice that sounds like his deceased friends, overpowers.  _ Help her. She’s your friend. _

"You plugged three plugs in? One next to the pump?"

"No," she admits. "I did not."

"There you go."

Soon enough, Gabbie gets her cables working. Last time, he was terrified and panicked when his promethean stepped toward him. Now, he doesn’t care. Win or lose, he’s not going to have more blood on his hands.

Gabbie’s behind. It sucks. She doesn’t want to die and her odds aren’t looking too good, but she keeps trying.

She pulls the pieces out of the box. "Any idea what we're building, Alex?"

"I think you can get that one." He sounds like a mentor of some sort, which oddly enough, he kind of is, because  _ clearly  _ he has his shit together and she doesn’t.

She’s so stressed out that she can’t focus at all. She could lose her heart and her life. A giant monster of a man is just waiting to rip it from her chest.

"I'm missing something huge," she thinks aloud, "and I don't know what it is."

"Oooh. You better hurry up,” Alex shakes his head.

"I don't know what I'm building." Gabbie laughs, but it’s not really a laugh as much as a mask of her absolute terror. DeStorm races across her mind. So do Liza and Tana. They’d want her to win. She can’t let them down.

"I think I got enough of a head start," Alex says. "Turn your box over."

Gabbie does what he says. There's a picture of what she needs to build, which is unnecessarily convenient for her not figuring it out herself. 

"Son of a bitch." She’s grateful for Alex for helping her. He’s a good guy. He doesn’t deserve this fate. By god she wishes they could both get out. But they can’t. She can’t think about what she has to do to him.

"Oh, is this it?" Alex inspects his puzzle. Gabbie has no idea how far along he is. "I don't want you to die!" There's audible pain in his voice. "But one of us has to!"

She doesn’t want to think about that. She’s close. She can get it. She can do it. She can-

Alex stands up, a completed puzzle at his feet.

Her heart drops.

_ I won. I’m going to live. _

Alex walks to the lever. His hand is sweaty and he tries to distract himself from the murder he’s about to commit.

"Alex, no!"

He looks up from the ground. Gabbie’s down on her knees, in openmouthed terror, her eyes sparkling with tears of pain and pre-death contemplation.

He can’t do it.

Not after Jesse and Liza and Tana. 

Not after Lauren.

Because throughout everything, Gabbie’s still his friend. She’s his friend. Even though they’ve had their differences… he can’t let her die. Not when she’s staring at him, pain and terror and absolute fear piercing her face. He will  _ not  _ give some psycho the satisfaction of having him kill his friend. He’s better than that. They’re better than that.

Alex’s hand drops. He walks over to his own puzzle and kicks it, sending pieces across the room. 

“What- what are you-” Gabbie stammers as he walks over to her. He kneels down next to her and begins to finish the puzzle, tears already springing at his brown eyes. 

“Alex!” Gabbie holds his hand down with her own. He finally looks at her. “What are you doing?”

“I…” he stammers. “You’re going to get out of here.”

“No, Alex, you  _ can’t.” _

“Yes I can,” he rips his hand away and continues on the puzzle. “I’ve lost so many tonight. I can’t lose you too.”

He finishes and waits for her to stand up. “Gabbie.”

“No.”

“You have to.”

There’s a pause. “Please don’t make me do this,” she whimpers. It’s so unlike her. 

“Please, Gabbie,” he bites his lip and holds back tears. “I can’t lose you. Please just do it.”

She looks like she’s about to cry as she stands up and walks toward the lever. She looks back at him.

Lauren’s there, encased in ethereal light, glowing like… like an angel. So are Tana and Liza and Jesse. They’re all there. He’ll see them soon.

“Please,” he whispers. With tears in her eyes, she pulls the lever.

Gabbie regrets it immediately.

She tries to run to Alex, to save him from this horrible fate, but she’s too late. A promethean grabs her arms and holds her back as another grabs Alex and pins him to the ground.

“Alex!” she screaming.  _ No no don’t-  _ “Alex!  _ Alex!” _

Alex is painfully quiet as the Promethean pulls out a knife.

“No! No! Don’t!  _ Alex! Alex!” please don’t do this please don;t do this no no no- _

Alex cries out in pain as the dagger sinks into his flesh. Gabbie’s screaming and hyperventilating and hot tears are running down her pale face.  _ He’s dead. He’s actually dead. I let him die. I killed him. _

The robotic man stands up, a bloody still-beating heart clenched in his fist. He presents it to Cedric, who doesn’t seem to care at all.

_ You asshole. You sick, twisted asshole. _

Alex is dead, and all this psycho cares about is that he got a stupid heart.  _ Alex’s  _ heart, no doubt.

Gabbie’s forced out of the room, but not before seeing Alex’s corpse. His eyes are closed and he looks somewhat peaceful, which makes it all the more worse. 

Once they’re in the hallway, Cedric turns to her. “Let her go,” he orders. The Promethean releases his grip on her and Cedric faces Gabbie. “It had to be done.”

“Shut up, asshole,” she mutters, hot tears streaming down her face, anger masking her grief.

"What's going on?" Tyler squeaks. The Prometheans enter.

"I don't know," Joey whimpers, fear lacing his voice. “But they’re coming towards us.

"Wait." Andrea says. "He has a heart. He has a heart." Another one of Joey’s friends is dead and gone. Who is it? He doesn’t want to know.

He bites his lip. "Where's Alex? Where's Gabbie?"

A shadowy figure arrives. It's Gabbie. She looks down, clenching her fists and biting her lip, her face a mask of anger and grief.  _ No. Not Alex. He’s our best player. He’s not dead. He can’t be.  _

“What happened?” Him, Tyler, and Andrea all ask in unison. No reply.

“Oh my gosh,” Joey says. Tyler and Andrea look to be equally shocked.

Cedric, Alison, and Jetpack Girl follow suit to the Prometheans. Tyler mumbles “Alex… Alex can’t be… that can’t be Alex’s…”

“Heart,” Andrea finishes. Joey wants to barf. “That’s Alex’s heart.”

“How?” Tyler looks like he’s about to cry. “Why?”

Gabbie covers her face with her hands as she stands next to them. “He…” she sounds like she’s crying. Andrea pulls her in for a hug as the Vaudevillian sobs on her shoulders.

“What happened?” Tyler asks, his eyes filled with tears. 

“He… he…” Gabbie pulls away from Andrea and manages to get her breathing under control. “He sacrificed… he sacrificed himself… so I could...”

Tyler and Andrea give small gasps to the fate and decision of their fallen friend.  _ Alex?  _ Joey thinks.  _ Alex sacrificed himself? _

But then again, of course. All night long, he’d been volunteering to go in. To protect everyone. Alex Wassabi was a hero. No,  _ is.  _ He sacrificed himself so Gabbie and the others can live.

_ I’m so sorry, Alex. I’ll never forget you as long as I live. _

**Author's Note:**

> RIP Alex. I honestly have no idea why I wrote this except that I have way too many really awful ideas.


End file.
